explaining_errors_in_star_trekfandomcom-20200215-history
The Wolf Inside
In The mirror universe In The USS Defiant (NCC-1764) ' |image= |series= |production=111 |producer(s)= |story= |script= Lisa Randolph |director= TJ Scott |imdbref=tt6011052 |guests= Wilson Cruz as Hugh Culber, James Frain as Sarek (mirror) / Sarek, Michelle Yeoh as Philippa Georgiou, Emily Coutts as Keyla Detmer, Riley Gilchrist as Shukar, Julianne Grossman as Discovery Computer, Devon MacDonald as Service Engineer, Ali Momen as Kamran Gant, Dwain Murphy as Captain Maddox, Tasia Valenza as Shenzhou Computer, Chris Violette as Britch Weeton and Romaine Waite as Troy Januzzi |previous_production=Despite Yourself |next_production=Vaulting Ambition |episode=DSC S01E11 |airdate=14 January 2018 |previous_release=Despite Yourself |next_release=Vaulting Ambition |story_date(s)=Unknown |previous_story=Despite Yourself |next_story=Vaulting Ambition }} Summary Burnham and Tyler have to stay aboard the ISS Shenzhou in the parallel universe until they can either decipher the information on the Defiant, or transmit it to the Discovery without anyone listening. In the meantime on the Discovery, the murder of Dr. Culber has been discovered, but is ascribed to Lt. Stamets. Tilly, however, is sure that Stamets is not himself because of his exposure to the spore network. She convinces Saru to let her proceed with a treatment with spores, rather than relying on conventional medicine. "Captain" Burnham receives orders from the imperial flagship to destroy the rebel base of the "Fire Wolf", the Klingon leader of the alien rebels. She needs a pretext and tells the crew that she would rather beam down with Tyler and steal data that may help eradicate the rebellion once and for all. When she and Tyler materialize on the surface of the planet called Harlak, the two surrender to the rebels. They are taken to a camp and meet the "Fire Wolf", who turns out to be the parallel version of Voq. Burnham tries to convince Voq that she is no longer the ruthless captain he used to know. In order to verify her statement he calls the "Prophet", the parallel version of Sarek. In a mind meld with Burnham, Sarek confirms her peaceful intentions. Tyler, however, becomes increasingly agitated in the presence of Voq, his true identity in the other universe. As memories of his former Klingon life resurface, Voq-Tyler is appalled that his alter ego would ally himself with Vulcans, Andorians and Tellarites. He assaults Voq. Only Sarek's insistence that Burnham's intentions are genuine prevents that she and Tyler are killed by the rebels. Burnham warns the rebels of the impending attack and returns to the Shenzhou with Tyler. Tilly almost succeeds to revert Stamets's brain to the normal state, but then his heart activity drops rapidly, and the medical staff can't save him. Stamets comes back to life though, and in his mind he meets his parallel self. When Burnham confronts Tyler, he admits that he is Voq in human disguise, and that he infiltrated the Discovery. He attempts to kill her, but Saru, the captain's slave in this universe, saves Burnham's life. Tyler is taken to the transporter room for execution. Burnham personally beams him into space, but he then materializes on the Discovery where he is arrested. Saru also takes the storage device with the information on the Defiant that Burnham placed in Tyler's holster. On the Shenzhou, Burnham is informed that another ship begins an orbital bombardment of Harlak. It is the ship of the emperor, who turns out to be Georgiou. Emperor Georgiou is angry that Burnham disobeyed her order to eliminate the outpost immediately. Errors and Explanations Movie Mistakes # Movie Nut As the hologram of Captain Maddox walks toward Burnham, it steps up the steps, complete with reflections on the floor. Maddox would be in a hologram projection chamber with no steps, let alone a reflection, and no steps. Correction: First of all, there is nothing in the show that indicates "projection chambers" are used. The holograms appear to be generated from bridge so any interaction would match the room they are in. As for the reflection, the hologram doesn't produce the reflection. The floor is reflecting the hologram. TV Tropes Headscratchers # Transporter ranges are seriously farther than is established by canon. A Prime transporter has a range of 40,000 km at the high limit, and you generally want to be within 30,000 km or so. In Star Trek sensor range terms, this is effectively spitting distance. When Tyler is transported into space, how did Discovery get close enough to transport him back without Shenzhou picking them up on sensors, Tyler dying of exposure, or a combination of the two happening? There's not even throwaway lines on Discovery using short range spore jumps to get close enough to "hide" in a not easily scanned location within 80,000 km of the Shenzhou. Discovery has an advantage: they have a mole acting as captain of the Shenzhou. It's not unreasonable to assume that Burnham was able to tweak the computer system to tell it to briefly ignore Discovery when it closed to within transporter range and not raise an alarm. # Cloaking devices are explicitly established to be unknown to the Mirror Universe until the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine era (that's why Quark and co. had to steal one for them). How does the Emperor have a secret cloaked ship 100 years earlier? It doesn't make sense, especially when you could very easily simply CGI a giant battleship to be the Imperial Flagship warping in. It's a lazy cost decision that ends up conflicting with canon (and we already know how cranky people get over that!) At the moment, there's no evidence there's a cloak. It probably will be revealed to be one, but it could just as easily be that Fleet has programmed the computers so that the flagship doesn't appear on them unless it wants to be, making it harder for an ambitious captain to target the Emperor. Given the Properly Paranoid nature of the Mirror Universe, it isn't an unreasonable precaution. Also, it's entirely possible that the cloaking technology in the hands of the Empire — probably Suliban-designed — is a very closely guarded secret, and gets lost somehow in the intervening years before or during the Empire's downfall. It's not like the Empire's focus is on science when much of its economy must be devoted to warfare just to maintain such an iron grip on the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. The Klingons or Cardassians might have gotten their hands on the same cloaking technology later on, or developed their own in the century that they had to consolidate their power until DS9's era. # The original plan was for Burnham and Tyler to acquire the data they need from the Mirror Shenzhou, transfer it to the Discovery, and then get back there along with Lorca. However, in this episode Burnham gives a technobabble explanation to Saru, saying that the data is encrypted or something and therefore cannot be transferred, which is why they have to stay onboard Shenzhou. But later on we see Burnham has downloaded the data on a disk, which she puts to the pocket of the "dead" Tyler, allowing Discovery to get it. If the encrypted data could be put on a disk, why didn't Burnham just do that as soon as possible, and then get the hell out of Shenzhou with her two crew members, carrying the disk herself? It would simply be too suspicious. Captains may have relatively wide latitude with their authority, but even they are answerable to the chain of command, which is shown to be pretty brutal in the Mirror Universe. Burnham just up and leaving Shenzhou with a known traitor would definitely arouse suspicions (if not being considered outright desertion) and if anyone tracked her to Discovery, things could turn bad very quickly. Discovery is trying its hardest to remain inconspicuous. (Though that does link to the above Headscratcher of how Discovery went undetected while they retrieved Ash.) # How come Lorca's pet tribble didn't detect Tyler/Voq? '''Because he's almost entirely human, enough to fool Starfleet medical scanners, not just given simple plastic surgery. (Assuming it's not a mirror Tribble, which we have no idea how they react.) Category:EpisodesCategory:Discovery